101 Uses For is popular and let's hope it stays that way. Our second book is presently called 101 tips for self sufficiency; we will certainly dip into this section for ideas. So post away and let's try and get at least one thread up to 101.

Do you think we can do 101 ways of getting rid of slugs? - I do like my lists.

1. Pick up and slam them between two bricks
2. (a pretty micarbe one) - collect loads and stick them in a blender then paint around the area that they are in with juice, its like vlad the impalier they don't like sensing death of their own kind.
3. Beer traps
4. Keep any areas free of places for them to hide.

I've not heard of this, but I wonder if it is the same rule that prevents people recommending the use of washing-up liquid against aphid. If it is, it's a load of old bollix.

AIUI, some European ruling has it that a product can only be sold for use for the purpose it is intended for - as washing-up liquid has not been tested to European standards for aphid control, it cannot be sold as such. I even heard one of the chaps on Gardener's Question Time explaining in a roundabout sort of way that he was no longer allowed to recommend the use of it (while quite clearly doing so, of course).

Sprinkling coffee grounds around lettuces, marigolds and delphiniums could help to deter snails and slugs.

Scientists have discovered that the levels of caffeine found in coffee is enough to repel or even kill a gastropod pest.

Because the chemical is relatively environmentally friendly, it could become a safe "green" pesticide for gardeners and farmers, the researchers said. The findings come from a team based at the United States Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Centre in Hawaii.

The researchers, led by Robert Hollingsworth, were field testing caffeine against an introduced frog pest in the Pacific islands when they discovered that large slugs were killed by sprays containing one to two per cent caffeine.

Surprised by the potent effect of the chemical, the team allowed slugs to bury themselves in earth in pots before they wetted the soil with a caffeine solution. After two days, all the slugs had fled the soil and 92 per cent were dead, they report in Nature.

In further tests, the scientists dipped cabbage leaves in a caffeine solution and offered them to the slugs. When given a choice, the animals avoided eating the contaminated leaves.

Caffeine was equally noxious for snails. After an hour of exposure, the heart rate of snails rose, while after 96 hours all were dead.